African Violets are grown for sale as domestic house plants. They are one of the most popular and widely enjoyed house plants in the United States and around the world. New cultivars are developed through controlled breeding programs leading to desirable and stable characteristics. Among the characteristics commercial breeders strive to develop in new cultivars through traditional breeding are attractive flower colors, profuse flowering and a long flowering period, among others.
Thus far, traditional breeding techniques have failed to produce African Violet cultivars that stably produce more than one flower stem from one leaf node or leaf axil. The leaf node or leaf axil refer to the place where a leaf joins the main axis of the plant. African Violet plants produce a flower stem that grows from the leaf node or leaf axil.
The profusion and duration of flowering stems on known cultivars is limited. Attempts have been made to increase the number of flowers produced by African Violet cultivars through increasing the number of leaf nodes. However, the uniform plant habit is lost as the number of leaf nodes increases.
There is a need therefore for new strategies for producing African Violet plants with increased numbers of flower stems, larger numbers of flowers and more continuous flowering habit.